Alterations of agency in hypnosis: A new predictive coding model

Hypnotic suggestions can lead to altered experiences of agency, reality, and memory. The present work is primarily concerned with alterations of the sense of agency (SoA) following motor suggestions. When people respond to the suggestion that their arm is rising up all by itself, they usually have a feeling of passivity for their action. The mechanisms leading to such alterations of the SoA are still controversial.

Prefrontal cortex exhibits multidimensional dynamic encoding during decision-making

"Recent work has suggested that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in context-dependent perceptual decision-making. In this study, we addressed that role using a new method for identifying task-relevant dimensions of neural population activity. Specifically, we show that the PFC has a multidimensional code for context, decisions and both relevant and irrelevant sensory information. Moreover, these representations evolve in time, with an early linear accumulation phase followed by a phase with rotational dynamics.

A neural cognitive architecture

 It is difficult to study the mind, but cognitive architectures are one tool. As the mind emerges from the behaviour of the brain, neuropsychological methods are another method to study the mind, though a rather indirect method. A cognitive architecture that is implemented in spiking neurons is a method of studying the mind that can use neuropsychological evidence directly.

The role of inter- and intracultural mental variations

The concept of mentality in actual research is revealed. The importance of the category of analytic-holistic thinking is emphasized (including its manifestations at the inter- and intracultural level). The articles are analyzed, which describe the brain support of behavior in mental variations, including those related to various types of activity and forms of social interaction. The results are interpreted from the standpoint of a systemic evolutionary approach. The evolutionary aspect of the existence of intra- and intercultural variations is discussed.

 

Functional connectivity of the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and inferior frontal gyrus in humans

"Parcellation of the orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and inferior frontal gyrus based on their functional connectivity with the whole brain in resting state fMRI with 654 participants was performed to investigate how these regions with different functions in reward, emotion and their disorders are functionally connected to each other and to the whole brain.